Every keeper learns the pattern of descent:
One step for sound,
Two for sight,
Three for thought,
Four for forgetting.
Beyond the fourth, memory becomes water again, and all things spoken are reflected backward.
Those who descend unmeasured risk hearing their own voice before it is born.
Thus they draw upon their palms the spiral glyph — the E’lath — as a safeguard against premature remembrance.
The Maharajagar 